Dryer Vent inline clean out boxes- lint reduction

SteveB · #1 01-04-2007, 10:14 PM

Hey guys.
Hope everyone had a great christmas/kwaanza/hannakuh/etc..., and New Year.
I'm here today because I found it necessary to clean out my dryer vent pipe. What a miserable task, as any who've done it before knows.
For those of you surprised by my statements, when my house was first built, I was fully aware of just how much lint could build up, and made my own lint clean out box to place in the wall. It has 1/4" hardware cloth to reduce the amount of lint that passes through to the pipe which leads outside. While I knew that this was too large, and would allow a fair amount of lint to pass through. However, I did not want to make the screen smaller; thus making it necessary to constantly clean out the box.
While I knew that one day I'd need to clean the pipe out, I didn't think it'd be necessary for a few more years-- it'll be 7 years in 5 more weeks. Silly me, eh?
Has anyone among all of you come up with a solution to having to clean out dryer vent pipe?
Such as multiple clean out boxes, under the floor- crawl space- evenly spaced?
Whatever ideas anyone has would be appreciated.
SteveB.

Hazardousal · #2 01-16-2007, 04:39 PM

The dryer line in all of my houses I've been in I've been lucky enough to have the dryer at the outside wall, so only 12-18" of pipe then flex to dryer. If your run is long and straight I could recomend a chimney sweep. We bouught one with 8' lenghts that can be added to each other. We were using it to clean a very badly carboned up tube heater. We attached a shop vac to one end and plunged away.

till then...

mel · #3 02-11-2012, 08:11 AM

We put in 4" in line lint trap, all it is a box with a screen in it and 2 4" collars on the ends. If the run is longer 25' we put on a dryer booster fan.

roofermarc · #4 02-13-2012, 06:30 AM

On an interior wall, we take a 3" by 4" downspout and turn the bottom out 90% into the room and put a cap on it that was removable, then a 4" r/d tap would protrude through the wall at the right height to connect to the dryer. In the attic we would then cut the pipe above the plate line and install a sq to r/d and connect to 4" r/d pipe and bring it through the roof. We then would use a standard r/j with a w/b cap. The home owner could then remove the wide band (w/b) cap from the roof jack and the tap from the bottom of the downspout, and then proceed to clean it out however. You just cant run over 25' or the dryer would over heat. I think each 90% elbow counts for 5' of pipe.

Stickman · #5 02-16-2012, 06:39 AM

I made a 4" adapter to fit a powerful electric leaf blower for the local appliance dealer. I told him I wanted to try it on mine first.....slid the dryer out and hooked the pipe on the blower.....WOW..cleaned it out great....most of it went flying in the wind too outside

roofermarc · #6 05-18-2012, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stickman

I made a 4" adapter to fit a powerful electric leaf blower for the local appliance dealer. I told him I wanted to try it on mine first.....slid the dryer out and hooked the pipe on the blower.....WOW..cleaned it out great....most of it went flying in the wind too outside

That is a good idea stickman, and I have seen countless dryer vents clogged on many residential roof ventures. I do offer a revamping of many of these for the customer by at least reworking what you can get to in an attic situation.

philvanv · #7 06-14-2012, 10:19 PM

When i was cleaning ducts and dryer vents, i used a 4" round chimney brush with 10' flex poles. Then I'd run a shop-vac through. Worked 98% of the time.

SteveB · #8 04-22-2018, 02:19 PM

Hi all.
It's been a long time since I'd posted this, and upon returning, I looked at some of my old posts. Since I did complete this project not too long after I posted here, the update on this is that I built a beam box, with a filter in it.
I built two square to rounds, top flat, centerline. The bottom dropped down, to a 12 x 16, from a 4" round, and then back to the 4" round. I then placed a service access door, so I could remove the lint.
Aside from having to crawl the underfloor, it actually works really well.

mouse53 · #9 04-23-2018, 09:48 AM

I can remember cringing when I first saw the gravity dryer roof vents, and knowing these were going to be a future problem, not counting all the lint on the new black roofs. I always thought dryers were not meant to push lint uphill, let alone a story or two up. Whatever you do to cut down on the clogging is going to involve going in the attic or crawl under the house. I have noticed in cold areas the pipe gets lined with wet lint compounding the problem and shortening the time it takes to clog. They make a device now with extension pieces you hook to a drill with a brush on the end and a fitting for your Shopvac.